The Shadow and the Lights
by greeniethewritermouse
Summary: When his family has to move because of his father's job it becomes impossible for Aomine to stay at Touou, so he transfers into Seirin and joins the basketball team there the normal way. Both he and Kuroko are shocked to find themselves on the same team again after so many months apart.
1. Chapter 1

**The Shadow and the Lights**

**Chapter One: Transfer**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kuroko no Basuke

* * *

It was a nice day, sunny and warm without being sweltering, with a light breeze bringing fresh air through the open windows. You couldn't have asked for a better first day of school. In fact, it was one hundred times better than Aomine's actual first day of high school at Touou had been. His classroom, 1-C, was big and roomy with new furniture and his homeroom teacher had let him get away with the bare minimum of an introduction and then sent him to sit the the back row next to the big windows.

Aomine shoved his hands deeper into the pockets of his school uniform, feeling a bit out of place in his Touou tie and blazer in the middle of the milling sea of Seirin students in their black and pale blue uniforms. Still, he ignored the discomfort and wound his way through the throngs of students enjoying the start of their lunch break until he reached the faculty office.

Just inside the door there was an argument going on, well, maybe it was less of an argument and more of the tall redhead student being harangued by a short balding teacher with a bad comb-over.

"—and if I catch you sleeping in my class again Kagami-kun that will be the least of your worries! Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

"Y-yes sensei, I am really, very sorry, it won't happen again. Sorry." said the redhead, hurriedly backing out of the room with an awkward series of low bows.

He raised his head from his bow only once he was passed the door frame and in the relative safety of the hall and when he did his gaze fell directly on Aomine. He was an intimidating looking guy, almost as tall as Aomine with a foreboding expression and a direct gaze made even more unnerving by his reddish eyes. He paused in his headlong flight from the faculty office to nod at Aomine.

"Hey."

"Yo," Aomine greeted with a lackluster nod in return.

"You're new, right? I would have noticed it before if a guy as strong as you had been in this school since the beginning. You're in first year? Do you play basketball?"

Aomine couldn't contain a snort. This guy was almost too much. He'd taken one look at him and already he was asking about basketball.

"Yeah, I play."

Immediately he grinned and the expression transformed his face.

"Great. I can't stick around but I'm Kagami Taiga, class 1-B. Come and find me some time and we'll play one-on-one."

Before Aomine had a chance to disabuse Kagami of the idea that he'd play with him, or that if they did play that they'd be in any way equally matched, the redhead had joined the flow of people in the corridor and was moving away.

"Whatever," Aomine muttered.

He glanced down at the paper in his hand with a sigh. Did he really want to do this? He could just quit basketball for good and not have to deal with the disappointment that welled up within him, more bitter with every opponent who refused to even try to face him. Something always clenched in his chest at the thought though, stopping him from going through with it at the last second. He loved basketball, he couldn't imagine never playing again even if it wasn't exactly fun anymore. He really didn't want to give up on that last flicker of hope that somewhere there was a player strong enough to challenge him, and the only way to find that player would be to play his way to the top.

Besides even if he didn't find his own rival there was still the rest of the so called Miracles to square off against. And Touou had a good team and it would only get better with Satsuki to back them up so there might be some challenge from that quarter. No, he couldn't give up now when for the first time in months it looked like there might be a real game waiting for him.

He shook his head and shoved the paper into his pocket carelessly. Squaring his shoulders and smoothing the discontent from his expression Aomine knocked politely on the doorframe of the faculty office.

"Ah, Aomine-kun," his homeroom teacher greeted, with a benevolent smile, "How are you settling in?"

"Ah, fine, Fujihara-sensei. I was actually looking for Takeda-sensei, I wanted to see about joining the basketball club."

"Ah, I am Takeda," said a diminutive old teacher with a crop of thinning white hair rummaging around on his desk and coming up with a few forms.

Aomine blinked a bit, "Uh, are you the basketball team's coach Takeda-sensei?"

"Oh, no my boy, I'm just the teams advisor, no, the person you want to be talking to about joining is Aida Riko, she's the coach. Fill out those forms and hand them in to her. You can usually find her in her classroom, 2-A, at around this time."

"Right, thank you sensei. Please excuse me."

Takeda-sensei just waved him off with a vacant smile.

Aomine could admit that he was more than a little surprised. Seirin was a new school but it wasn't weak by any stretch, they'd made it to the Inter-High preliminary finals last year after all. To find out that the coach was female was a surprise. He shrugged a bit to himself, well, he knew better than to assume that just because she was a woman she couldn't coach a sports team, Satsuki had trained him that much at least, and who knew, maybe if she was pretty enough he'd actually turn up at practice and matches.

Quickly Aomine dug a pencil out of his book bag and smoothing the paper up against the nearest wall scribbled in the minimum required information on the forms Takeda-sensei had handed him. He then flagged down a purposeful looking student with glasses and got directions to classroom 2-A.

The second year classrooms were on the third floor of the school along with the science and technology labs, but they were laid out in the same order as the first year classrooms just below them so it was easy to find classroom 2-A even with all the traffic in the halls.

"Hey I'm looking for the basketball team's coach, Aida-san," he said after a perfunctory knock on the classroom's doorframe.

"Ah, that's me."

Aomine blinked, he seemed to be doing that a lot today, the coach was not a teacher as he'd assumed but a second year student. A fey little slip of a thing with short brown hair and assessing whiskey colored eyes. She looked up from what seemed to be some sort of training regime. Behind her loomed a lanky spikey-haired guy with glasses.

"Uh, hey, right, I talked to Takeda-sensei and he said that you were the person to talk to about joining the basketball team."

"That's right," she said briskly flicking a quick glance over his body, her mouth quirked up into a small smirk, "You're a transfer student? Did sensei give you your papers?"

Aomine handed them to her and wordlessly.

"Aomine Daiki, transferred out of Touou, and your middle school was…hmm, Teiko."

That gave her pause and she flicked a pointed glance over her shoulder to the spikey haired guy who was frowning thoughtfully. Aomine leaned against the doorframe and let his eyes hood lazily, supremely confident in his acceptance since he could tell from their expressions they'd heard of at least the Generation of Miracles if not him specifically.

"Why did you transfer here?" asked the guy, "It's still pretty early in the year and Touou's got a strong team this year by all accounts."

"My Dad got transferred to a different branch of his company, it was just too far to commute to Touou every day," Aomine shrugged.

Not that he hadn't tried to argue with his parents about it. His set up at Touou had been almost ideal, and of course Satsuki was there and they hadn't been in separate schools since they were toddlers. His mother had scolded him for being inconsiderate, told him that they weren't made of money, and pointed out that he would have to be awake at four in the morning if he wanted to take the train to Touou in time for morning practice and Aomine wasn't about to tell her that he never went to morning practice.

Well, either way it was fine. It didn't matter what team he played for. Victory for him was assured. Still he wouldn't want to have to carry Seirin forward the whole time. That would just be tiring and boring.

"Well, I don't have a problem accepting you into the club," said Aida tucking his forms away, "This is our captain Hyuuga Junpei, we also have some room on the bench if you're interested in trying for a regular position. We lost most of our new candidates in the first round of testing so you won't have too much competition."

Aomine managed to stop the surprise from showing on his face. Well, mostly. They weren't even going to give him a bench spot? What was with that? They had to know that with a member of the Generation of Miracles on their team their wins were assured, so, what the hell?

"What did we do to deserve such an arrogant crop of freshman?" Hyuuga commented with a smirk.

Apparently he hadn't done all that great a job of masking his shock and annoyance.

"If you want the chance to play in proper matches Aomine-kun you'll have to show me your resolve. I don't care how good you are, I won't coach a team of half-hearted players," Aida warned, "Do you have a change of clothes and shoes with you?"

"Yeah."

"Good. You can join us for practice after school today in the second gym and then we'll see what you're made of. Come on Hyuuga, we're going to be late if we don't hurry, did you get the bread money from Koga-kun and Mitobe-kun?"

"Yeah, I can't believe we're doing this again this year, isn't it a bit too ridiculous?"

"It's good to torture the first years a bit so that they don't get ideas above their station. I want to do this every year!"

"Eh, should we make this one come along then?" asked Hyuuga, eyeing him with a measuring gleam to his eye.

Aida paused, as though she were considering the idea and then shook her head.

"Nah, it's only his first day at Seirin so we'll cut him some slack, as a welcome to the school gift," said Aida with a wicked grin.

Aomine winced internally, feeling a brief pang of sympathy for his fellow nameless faceless first years.

"Alright then, count yourself lucky Aomine-kun. We'll see you at practice later. Don't be late."

And with that Aida and Hyuuga left him standing in their classroom doorway without a backward glance, still a bit shell-shocked and gawping after them like some kind of an idiot.

* * *

**AN: **I've seen a couple of Kuroko or Kagami goes to Touou stories, but I've only encountered one other Aomine goes to Seirin story so I wanted to try my hand at one.

Please review if you guys have suggestions for areas where I could improve or ideas about the plot you'd like to share and let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Shadow and the Lights**

**Chapter Two: Reunion**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kuroko no Basuke

* * *

The second gym at Seirin might not have been as impressive as the gym at Touou or even the first gym in the front part of the athletic wing where there was wrestling going on, but all the equipment was new and well-cared for.

Aomine, not knowing where the club locker room was, nor particularly wanting to bother with finding it, changed in the nearest bathroom and shoved his Touou uniform carelessly back into his bag, and then went back to the second gym.

The spikey-haired, glasses-wearing captain had appeared in the few minutes it had taken him to change and was set up in front of one of the nets sending in one pretty, arcing shot after the next with a soft swish.

"So you shoot threes, huh," commented Aomine to draw his attention.

"Somehow the way you said that really pisses me off," said Hyuuga with a tight, vaguely challenging smile.

Rather than shooting the ball in his hands he passed it to Aomine. The pass was neat, made with the same unthinking economy of movement all good players utilized and smacking into his hands with enough force to let Aomine know that despite the neatness of the pass there was some temper behind it.

Aomine favored the captain with a lazy smirk and lobbed the shot free-handed from where he was standing. It tapped the backboard neatly and then fell into the net with a swish. Rather than seeming shocked by the lack of form the shot took the captain nodded a bit to himself, his expression thoughtful.

"You're good, even if you don't have nice form, as expected of one of the so-called Generation of Miracles. You can shoot from anywhere?"

"Hn," agreed Aomine, wandering over to the bin and grabbing another ball.

The shape of it felt good in his hand, right, damn but he wanted to play and that was pissing him off.

"What's your position?"

"Hm? Oh, power forward."

Hyuuga made a small amused noise at that, "Kagami will have a field-day if you're anywhere near as strong as you look."

"Kagami?"

"Another arrogant first-year," Hyuuga answered, grabbing a ball, turning neatly on the ball of his foot and sending it through the net again without any apparent effort, "He's our power forward and he likes throwing himself up against strong opponents. Truthfully none of us are enough of a challenge for him if it's one-on-one."

"Hn."

Interesting. Kagami—he thought he'd heard that name before but he couldn't think of where—well, maybe such a guy could amuse him; even it was only a little.

"Wipe that bored expression off your face rookie! If you have time to make those kind of faces we'll run a two-man passing drill while we wait for the others."

"Eh?"

"Not eh! Move!" demanded Hyuuga sending another one of those neat controlled passes at his head.

Aomine shifted a bit to the side and caught the ball, rolling his wrist and moving forward in a lazy dribble to humor the captain, lobbing it back in his usual careless way.

And that went on for a few minutes, running up-down laps of the gym and letting his attention wander while Hyuuga used him to warm up.

"Captain," called a cheery voice, "Is this our new newbie?"

Aomine turned to find the rest of the team emerging from a small door off to the side of the gym that must lead into the locker rooms.

The cheery voiced guy had brown hair and a face like a cat, behind him was a tall guy, not as tall as Aomine maybe 185cm or so, with long black hair.

"We heard the news that—"

"Seriously, shut up Izuki," interrupted the captain, pushing his glasses further up his nose and settling the basketball on his hip.

"Heh, it's you."

This came from the intimidating redhead that had challenged him to a one-on-one outside the faculty office at lunch, trailing in at the end of a line of unimpressive first-years.

"Eh? Kagami knows this guy?" commented the cat-faced guy.

"Hm? We met for a few seconds at lunch."

"And you saw that he was pretty strong and went and challenged him like the basket-head you are," concluded Hyuuga with a sigh, "Well it's fine, since you'll probably get the chance to practice against each other a lot."

"So this guy can keep up with Kagami?" said one of the first years, eying him with interest.

"He should be able to, this guy is one of Teiko's five prodigies, Aomine Daiki."

This drew even more interested stares from the rest of the team, but only the crop of first-years seemed unnerved, which was interesting. Kagami was giving him a good look, part excited grin, part challenging smirk.

"Yo," greeted Aomine with a lackluster wave, "Please take care of me, or whatever."

"Will you be playing as one of the regulars Aomine-kun?" asked one of the braver first-years.

"Hah? Just whose decision do you that is, Fukuda?" demanded Hyuuga, "This guy has to prove his resolve to the coach same as the rest of us before he can even be a benchwarmer!"

"Ah, ha, right. Sorry, Captain," said Fukuda sheepishly.

The first-years all winced and shot him sympathetic looks and Aomine noticed they all looked a bit bruised around the edges except for Kagami. What was up with this school?

"Captain!" called a guy, a second-year with narrow, smiling eyes, bursting through the main doors of the gym, "I copied the preliminary tournament bracket!"

"Good job Tsuchida, let's see it."

The second-year, Tsuchida, passed around a few neatly photocopied papers.

"You're the new guy? Welcome, good to have you," he said, clapping him on the shoulder as he passed Aomine his copy of the tournament schedule.

He took a cursory glance at the thing before turning his assessing gaze on his new teammates as they all got down to business, ignoring him for the moment. This team was the hardworking type, Aomine could tell right away. They were all average sized with between good and average athleticism, the exception of course being Kagami, and they made up for their physical deficiencies with long, grueling practices and a strong sense of camaraderie.

It was almost tragic. Aomine would bet good money that they didn't suck when compared with your average middle-tier school, but even with Kagami, if they didn't use him they would run up against a wall early on in the tournament. Midorima was in Tokyo after all and even without him Touou would give these guys trouble that was to say nothing of Seiho and Senshinkan who were no slouches even if they didn't have the fire-power to take on the members of the Generation of Miracles.

"The Inter-High preliminaries start as a tournament," Hyuuga informed the group, "If we lose even one game we're out. That's it. So we can't let our guard down for a single game. First years listen up; Tokyo has blocks A through D. The winners from each black go on to face each other in the Championship League. The top three teams from the Championship League then go on to the Inter-High. Only three schools are chosen out of the participating three-hundred. And only those chosen one percent will have the chance to stand on the court of their dreams. That's the reality of the Inter-High."

"I sort of get what you're saying," said Kagami, looking up from his paper, "But you're wrong about one thing."

"Hn?"

"They're not chosen. They win it," he said, "Captain."

That brought smiles to the faces of the second-years.

"We've got three weeks until the start of the Inter-High preliminaries. We fell one step short last year but this year we'll definitely move forward," said Hyuuga, looking all of them in the eyes.

There was a fire in this team that Aomine liked, they looked like the kind of team Tetsu would have liked to have been a part of, all teamwork and raw determined spirit. Aomine was almost glad his mother had picked this school, as much as he might have enjoyed having an opponent who was willing to rage against him, he didn't want to watch the fire drain from this team as he wove through them like they weren't even there.

"We'll be facing a lot of strong schools, but our biggest and strongest opponent by far is Shutoku High. In last year's tournament they made it into the Nationals top eight, and on top of that, just like Kaijou, they had one of the Generation of Miracles join their team this year. If we can't beat them we won't make it to the Nationals."

"Kuroko," said Kagami casually, and Aomine's eyes snapped to Kagami's right, "You know who he is? Don't you?"

Kagami hadn't bothered to look but the rest of the team seemed to have just noticed Tetsu's presence in their circle. Aomine was annoyed to count himself among them even as he locked eyes with his former shadow's familiar deadpan stare.

Seeing him again after so long was like a punch to the gut and Aomine couldn't help the slightly bitter laugh that came welling up out of nowhere, startling the rest of the team.

"Yo, Tetsu. It's been awhile."

"Aomine-kun," he said with a polite nod, his expression unreadable.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find you here. I was just thinking that this team suits your style of play. Too bad I didn't know you were in this school, I would have liked to have seen your face when you walked through those doors and saw me standing here."

"Momoi-san called me before school today and let me know you were coming."

"Tch. Satsuki could have bothered to warn me," grumbled Aomine.

"She did. You were ignoring her messages."

"Hn."

"Ah, I forgot," said the cat-faced guy, "Kuroko, you and Aomine will have been on the same team at Teiko, right?"

"Yes," agreed Tetsu with another nod.

"So," urged Kagami, nudging Tetsu, "Tell us about the one who's at Shutoku."

"I doubt you'd believe me even if I told you," said Tetsu, "However, it's just as Kise-kun said; Aomine-kun and the other three are on another level."

Here he turned his unreadable gaze on Aomine, cocking his head slightly, "If they've gotten even better, I can't even imagine how good they are."

"Don't look at me like that Tetsu, I haven't seen Midorima in almost three months, and since when are you chatting with Kise?"

"We had a practice game with Kaijou yesterday. We played against Kise-kun there."

"Yeah?"

"Yes, we managed to beat Kaijou with a buzzer beater."

"Hah? Was Kise asleep or something? Jeez, even that airhead should know better than to slack off against any team with you on it."

"Somehow," growled Hyuuga, "The way you said that is pissing me off."

Aomine leveled Hyuuga with a narrow-eyed look, "If you've come up against Kise then you should already know, going up against us at your current level is not going to work. Midorima could crush your entire team twice over without breaking a sweat as long as he had a half decent net of support players, and Shutoku is more than half-decent."

"And you?" challenged Hyuuga.

Aomine straightened up a bit and felt a nasty smirk twist his face, "Me? I would run through all of you as though you weren't even there and there wouldn't be a thing you could do to stop me. The only one who can beat me is me."

"Your personality has become bad, Aomine-kun," said Tetsu before the captain could blow a gasket.

"That's just how it is, Tetsu. You know that better than anyone. I'm not about to lie, and I can't help it if it's not what you want to hear," he shrugged, relaxing back into his languid pose and spinning the basketball in his hand on the tip of one finger.

"You shouldn't look down on us, Aomine-kun."

Aomine flicked another glance at Tetsu and his gaze fell on Kagami, who was leveling him a glare with killing intensity. He moved forward so that he was standing right in front of the redhead, and a spark of something flared in his gut and for a second he wasn't sure whether or not he was going to punch Kagami.

"Hn. So, this is your answer Tetsu? You've paired yourself with this guy and you think that you have enough strength to challenge Midorima and the rest?"

"Yes. If we fight together."

"You're too naive."

"The three of you are starting to really get on my nerves," snapped Hyuuga, "Before we play Shutoku, we have to play our first game. We're getting ahead of ourselves, focus on the opponent in front of you Kagami, and by that I don't mean this arrogant asshole."

Aomine and Kagami shared one last intense look and then turned their attention back to the captain.

"That goes for all of you! We've got to be on the ball, and don't think I won't still triple your strength training and footwork if I catch you slacking off."

"Ah, speaking of that, where's the coach?" asked Tsuchida.

"She went to observe our first opponent's practice game," said Hyuuga, "She should be here shortly."

"I'm back," came a sudden female voice as the gym doors clicked open and then shut again.

"Oh, speak of the devil."

"She was skipping after she got the practice game with Kaijou, but she's not skipping today," commented one of the first-years, a kid with a shaved head.

"Coach, are you gonna skip today?" asked the brown haired first year next to him, innocently.

"Like hell I will!" snapped Aida and the first years all flinched.

"Morons," said Hyuuga, "She wouldn't act like an idiot over an official game. But you do seem to be in a bad mood. Are they really that good?"

"Well, I'm going to say we shouldn't start worrying about things like facing Shutoku when our first match isn't looking good."

"What are you talking about?" asked Hyuuga a concerned expression crossing his face briefly before being smoothed away.

"One of their players might give us trouble," she said handing Hyuuga her phone, "I'll show you all the video later but for now here's a picture."

Hyuuga flipped open the phone, and the rest of the team gathered behind him to get a look, and choked a bit at the picture of a kitten staring back at him, "This is—" he started, "Well, it's cute but…"

Aida waved her hand, "Ah, sorry, it's the next one."

Hyuuga clicked a button on the phone and the kitten was replaced by a candid head-shot that filled the entire screen. The whole team let out surprised gasps.

"His name is Papa Mbaye Siki. Two meters tall. Weighs eighty seven kilograms. He's a foreign student from Senegal."

"Senegal? Two meters, he's huge!" exclaimed Hyuuga.

"Can they do that?" asked the cat-faced second year.

"A foreign student—I'm sorry but where is Senegal?" asked another, Izuki, if Aomine remembered correctly.

"So what, he's just big," said Kagami without any apparent concern.

"I have to agree with this guy," yawned Aomine, "I don't see what the big deal is."

"Who asked you?" demanded Kagami.

"Guys, focus," snapped Aida.

Kagami fell silent, and Aomine turned his attention back to Hyuuga.

"So this Papa…Nbai…what was it?"

"Papapanba," suggested Tsuchida.

"Papa Try-Hard?"

"This is going nowhere, Kuroko, give him a nickname," said Aida.

"Alright then…Dad."

"Where's your naming sense?" demanded the cat-faced guy.

"Dad's company is a dud," said Izuki, drawing out a flurry of snickers from the rest of the team.

"Then for Dad we'll have to—" started Aida, but no one was paying attention.

"That was so bad," giggled one of the first-years.

"You're laughing too, though."

"Hey, listen!"

The whole team stopped laughing and snapped into standing positions fast enough to have Aomine blinking.

"It's not just that he's tall. His arms and legs are long too. Everything about him is big. More and more schools are inviting students from abroad to increase their power. Until last year our next opponent Shinkyo High was a middle tier school, but with the addition of this one foreign player, they've become a completely different team. Their opponents can't reach high enough, and for that simple reason they cannot stop him."

"But we can't just do nothing," said Kagami.

"Who said we would?" Aida shot back with a small smile, "So, starting tomorrow, Kagami-kun, Kuroko-kun, you'll both have your own special training regimen. And I'm not about to go easy on the rest of you! The preliminaries start on May 16th, until then you won't even have time to complain!"

"Yeah!" cheered the team.

"Now, you've all been introduced to Aomine-kun? Good. Then you three come over here for a second."

"The rest of you start warming up, we'll start off with the footwork drills, then suicides, and then we'll play four-on-four," called Hyuuga.

There was a sudden flurry of squeaking sneakers even as he, Kagami, and Tetsu moved off to one side of the court.

"Alright boys, shirts off, I want to take a look at you."

"Again?" complained Kagami yanking his black tank top over his head.

Aomine shot Tetsu a confused look but he was already peeling off his white t-shirt. So with a shrug, Aomine did the same.

"Stop whining Kagami-kun, I want to get an idea of Aomine-kun's true strength and you're the best comparison I have since I was only able to get a look at Kise through his uniform."

"Why am I here then?" asked Tetsu.

"I didn't know what to make of your numbers the first time I looked at you Kuroko-kun. Now that I know your style of play I should be able to get a better read on your strengths and make up a better training menu for you."

"What's this all about?" demanded Aomine not liking being ignored.

Aida got his first good look at his naked chest and torso and stared unabashedly her whiskey eyes going round.

"Coach can see your fitness, your skills and your potential for growth just by looking at your body," Tetsu explained.

"Eh? Without any previous data?"

"She's not like Momoi-san," said Tetsu shaking his head, "Your body is her data, and she can read it like a book."

True enough the coach had stopped gawping and was instead frowning in concentration. Just looking between Aomine and Kagami you wouldn't have thought there was much difference between them. They were both of similar builds, that was, mostly just tanned skin and muscle stretched over bone, Kagami was a bit broader through the shoulders but Aomine was a few centimeters taller.

"You grew again, Aomine-kun," commented Tetsu.

"You too, Tetsu. You're taller than I remember, and skinnier," he observed, "Your hair got long too."

He looked good, thought Aomine. He always forgot that even though Tetsu was small and light with barely any presence, he wasn't actually unfit. His muscles had developed more definition since the last time Aomine had seen him and he found himself wondering if his passes would pack more punch now, or if he maybe had better stamina.

"Aomine-kun," said Aida suddenly, her voice dropping into a threatening register, "Just how long has it been since you trained or practiced seriously?"

"Eh? I don't remember."

"It's probably been about five months now, Coach," said Tetsu politely.

"Five—five _months_! Idiot! Moron! How stupid can you be?" Aida all but shrieked, "Your play relies on speed and agility. You make snap changes of pace and direction that put strain on your joints and tendons, which, by the way, are still growing! If you don't keep up with your training and conditioning and you still try and use that style on the court, even if it's not full speed or power, you'll do yourself a serious injury. What are you thinking? Or are you even thinking at all? Wasting all that potential sleeping all day and eating too much crappy food! I could cheerfully kill you!"

"It's not like I need to work to play basketball," he said, "The second I try even a little bit there's no one who can even keep up, so there's no point. It's fine like this."

Aida grit her teeth, her narrowed whiskey eyes flashing furiously. Out of the corner of his eye Aomine watched as both Tetsu and Kagami took a cautious step backward.

"Oh?" she said with deceptive mildness, "Are you really so arrogant as to think that there won't be ever be players that catch up to your level? You're still in High School, in your first year, people who were weak little shrimps in middle school shoot up in height, muscles develop, skills improve, people learn new things. Your joints are already hurting you, aren't they? I can see it, your hips, knees, and ankles are all showing telltale signs of overwork. What are you going to do when you finally do find yourself outmatched, Aomine-kun? Tell your opponent to wait while you catch up on months of missed conditioning, or maybe throw yourself into your play and spend the next year in the hospital while your rehab doctors all tell you you'll never play basketball again? Well, I won't have it. If you want to play on this team you'll train with this team, and that means you'll do exactly as I say and get yourself back into shape. Got it?"

Aomine was a little bit shocked, truth be told, maybe it was because he hadn't shown her any basketball yet but this little slip of a thing was the only coach who'd had the balls to tell him to get his ass in gear since he'd come into his talents. Nobody had cared about him training because whether he trained or not he still won them games. Not even Akashi. It was annoying, but at the same time almost refreshing.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," he answered finally after a long moment of tense silence, "So annoying coming to the only school in Tokyo whose coach cares about a thing like work ethic."

Aida bristled like a cat that had its tail trodden on, "Hyuuga!"

"Yes Coach," said the captain all but snapping to attention.

"Run this idiot through three times the footwork training and then send him outside to run!" she ordered, blowing a short blast on her whistle for emphasis.

"Right," said Hyuuga with a nod, "Get over to that side and start running suicides, then you can run the cone drill."

Aomine went, with a short scoff and a shake of his head, but he went none the less. He'd already decided he wasn't about to quit basketball and if this was the only way he would get to play then he would do what he had to do.

* * *

**AN: **And there you have it, Kuroko and Aomine meet again. Probably a little less dramatic than most of you thought it would be but this is Kuroko we're talking about after all.

Please feel free to leave a review and let me know what you guys think, I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing, and hearing your comments and knowing that people care about this fic gives me a ton of motivation to write!


	3. Chapter 3

**The Shadow and the Lights**

**Chapter Three: Reaction**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kuroko no Basuke.

* * *

Kuroko glanced up as Kagami exited the closet sized room that passed for the coach's office. The red head seemed surprised to see him still there, leaning casually against the opposite wall, fiddling with his wrist-bands.

"You waited for me?"

Kuroko shrugged, "I don't like showering when it's noisy."

"Liar," snorted Kagami, "You just don't want to spend any more time around that new guy, Aomine. You guys have some sort of history, right? You've been tense and weird all day."

"Sorry."

"Whatever, well, it's interesting to see you get worked up I guess, but stop letting him affect your passes," said Kagami opening the door to the club locker room and gesturing for Kuroko to precede him.

"Sorry. I will."

"Good, if our first game is gonna be this tough we can't afford to get sloppy now. What did the coach say to you?"

The locker rooms were empty, the first years who had stayed to clean up after practice having already followed their seniors' example and left for the day. Aomine, thankfully, included.

"Apparently I've gained good muscle tone because of the training but I've also lost too much weight," said Kuroko sitting down on the bench in front of his locker and unlacing his basketball shoes.

"See, I told you, you don't eat enough."

"Not everyone can eat as much as you, Kagami-kun," said Kuroko, depositing his shoes neatly into his bag and grabbing his towel, "She also said I should work on my flexibility, especially in my wrists and ankles and that she would draw up a practice menu for me. What about you, Kagami-kun?"

"Apparently I'm still a little lopsided," said Kagami stripping off his sweaty shirt and pulling a face as he slung his towel over his shoulder and proceeded into the shower area with Kuroko trailing along behind.

"Mm," agreed Kuroko, "You tend to favor your right side."

"I don't really. Do I? How do you even know that?"

"It's my job to know," Kuroko retorted, "I'm the one who has to pass to you after all."

The floor of the shower room was warm and damp, the tiles slick under his bare feet and Kuroko was quick to strip out of his practice clothes and make his way over to the nearest shower head.

The hot water felt wonderful sluicing over his sore muscles and melting the sweat and salt residue from his skin. Kuroko closed his eyes, scraping his fingers through his hair, and gave staying in the shower for the rest of the night some serious thought.

"Oi, don't fall asleep in the shower."

Kuroko sighed and gave up on that idea, flicking off the shower head and toweling off, wrapping the terry cloth around his hips.

"You know I think the coach is right about you being skinnier," said Kagami eyeing him critically as he waited for the water temperature to adjust to something more closely resembling boiling on the adjacent shower head, "I can almost count your ribs."

"You're exaggerating Kagami-kun," he said gathering up his clothes and making for the locker room, "I'm leaving first."

"Hey, are you coming to Maji Burger later?" asked Kagami stepping under the spray.

"Not tonight, I have laundry to do. I will see you tomorrow."

"Alright, see you."

Kuroko got dressed quietly and packed his clothes and damp towel neatly away in his sport's bag, mentally reminding himself that he needed to bring more extra clothes to store in his locker for the week, and smirking to himself slightly when Kagami started singing in English at the top of his voice, clearly thinking that he was alone.

The train-ride and subsequent walk home was uneventful, giving him too much time to mull over everything.

When Momoi had called that morning to warn him that Aomine had transferred into his school he hadn't known what to feel. Everything was muted and hypothetical and tinged with the ache of disappointed longing he'd come to associate with thoughts of Aomine. In truth, the coach's insane lunchtime initiation task had been a welcome distraction from surreptitiously searching the throngs of Seirin students for a flash of dark skin and navy hair.

Kuroko unlocked the front door, muttering a quiet "I'm home," as he toed off his shoes and set them neatly to one side of the shoe well.

He padded into the kitchen, dining room area and dropped his school bag and gym bag onto the floor tossing his uniform jacket over the back of one of the chairs. Opening his school back he pulled out his homework and laid it out over the dining room table in order of subject and difficulty and then grabbed his sport's bag and made for the laundry room.

As he was passing through the kitchen he noticed that one of the lights on the phone was flashing insistently indicating that there was a voicemail. Kuroko paused his usual after-school routine to listen to it, picking up the receiver and typing in the passcode for the voicemail box.

"_You have one unheard message and no saved messages, to check unheard messages press one one_," the phone instructed him.

Kuroko complied.

"Tetsuya, it's Mom, I guess you're probably still at basketball practice, right? Listen, there have been some problems here at the branch office and the human resources director says that they really need me to stay and help take care of things, so it looks like I'm going to be here for at least another three weeks, maybe longer. I know you can take care of yourself so I'm not too worried but don't just eat convenience store bento and melon bread, okay? I've wired some more money into your bank account for food and school expenses. Call me if you need anything or there's a problem with the house. I love you honey, work hard."

"_End of message. To erase this message press seven. To save it press nine_…_Message erased. End of unheard messages_."

Kuroko hung up the phone with a sigh and continued into the laundry room emptying his bag into the growing load of basketball shorts, school uniforms, white t-shirts and towels in the basket on the floor and sorting through it, throwing a load of whites into the wash.

He wasn't really surprised by this turn of events.

His parents had both been very career oriented people who had married under pressure from their respective parents and had never really planned on having kids. When his father had been promoted to branch manager within his company and transferred overseas his mother had finally been climbing back up the ladder of success after a long hiatus spent raising him. At that time her career as a graphic designer had taken off and she'd been hired by a prominent advertising company and Kuroko had just started middle-school at Teiko so they really didn't want to move with him.

It hadn't been too much of an adjustment, at first, because his father had always put in long hours at his company and Kuroko rarely saw him but as his first year of middle school went by it became common to only see his mother at breakfast and dinner, then only at breakfast, then only on weekends until finally she usually only stayed home on Sundays to make sure he had at least one home cooked meal a week and hadn't burnt the house down around his ears.

Not long after he started High School one of the designers in her company's offices in Hokkaido had fallen ill and she'd been transferred there to help out since they were horribly short staffed and designers were thin on the ground. She'd been picked to spearhead an important project over there and the transfer was an excellent opportunity for her to show her skills and advance even further within the company. It was supposed to be temporary, but it looked as though she would be there for a while.

Kuroko wondered vaguely whether or not he could expect to be living in this house alone by the end of the year as he wandered back into the dining room and sat down in front of his homework, reluctantly opening his math book to the end of chapter problems.

Well, either way it was probably fine, he thought, tapping his pencil against his notebook. He didn't exactly mind living alone most days.

During his last few years at Teiko it had meant that he could have Aomine over almost every day after practice without fear of being disturbed which had been very nice. But...truthfully he was getting a little tired of eating nothing but premade bento and Maji Burger for dinners and the silence in the house was sometimes a bit depressing.

He took out the meal plan that the coach had drawn up for him. It was handwritten and filled with details about calorie count, fat content, nutritional value and the like that Kuroko skimmed over interestedly. He had never considered adjusting his diet to help improve his basketball since he tried to eat healthily, taking a sandwich for lunch or ordering a salad from Maji Burger before his customary shake.

He would need to learn to cook somehow. Frowning slightly at the thought, the extent of his cooking skill was boiling eggs after all, he made his way over to the bookshelf in the living room. Sure enough there were the beginner's cookbooks his mother had bought during his years in elementary school during the brief period when she was trying to settle in and be a good, accomplished, housewife.

The cookbooks were really gathering dust and when he cracked the first one open it smelled almost new, a testament to his mother's inability to settle down at anything and an explanation for the excess of curry and cabbage stir fry in the meals of his youth.

It would be a bit troublesome at first, he thought flipping through the high-gloss pages, but he thought that the simpler recipes shouldn't be too hard to manage. Well, even if it proved difficult, the coach really knew her stuff and if she said that proper nutrition would help him build up his stamina even further he would just have to adapt.

That was a job for tomorrow, though. Tonight he would order take-away from the Thai place a few blocks down and maybe eat the rest of the tub of vanilla ice-cream that constituted the entire contents of his freezer.

In fact, Kuroko decided as he placed his usual order, he'd had a stressful enough day that maybe he'd just dig into the ice-cream first.

Taking out the tub and forgoing a bowl for the expedient of eating right out of the carton, Kuroko moved out of the kitchen and back into the dining room, glanced at his homework, decided he would do it later and wandered across the hall into the living room to plop onto the couch.

The first bite was soothing, creamy and comfortingly vanilla, and by the fifth spoonful Kuroko was ready to face the problem of Aomine coming to Seirin and joining his team.

His plan to make Kagami into a rival worthy of Aomine, to let the Generation of Miracles taste defeat so that they could learn to pull together with their teammates and maybe re-experience the euphoria of a team victory, was under very serious threat right now, after all.

He'd seen today that, at the very least, the coach and the captain would make sure that Aomine put in the necessary effort at practice and that was something no one had managed in a very long time. His respect for the senior pair had risen exponentially. Undaunted by the prospect of not having Aomine play for their team they would force the arrogant forward to practice properly and use team play and Aomine would comply because he still loved basketball and deep down he still wanted to play.

But now Kagami and Aomine would never play against one and other in a real game, which struck Kuroko as being unfortunate. But maybe that was still okay. After all, Kise went up against Aomine in one-on-one games all the time at Teiko and before he'd bloomed he'd found those games fun even though Kise had never been able to beat him.

At his current level maybe Kagami wasn't quite Kise's match but Kagami also hadn't bloomed yet. Kuroko could admit that he wasn't the most talented when it came to gauging potential and strength, but he'd watched and played with the Miracles for three years and when he played with someone for long enough he got a sense of their strengths and weaknesses based on their skill set and preferred playing styles. He could tell from their first few games together that Kagami would be strong when he bloomed and he trusted Kise's instincts on the matter. He was now really gambling on him being a match for Aomine at one-on-one, eventually.

Kuroko sighed around a particularly large spoonful of ice-cream. He wasn't upset just because his half-formed plans and tentative hopes had been uprooted again. No, it was emotionally draining just to see Aomine. He hadn't thought that seeing him face-to-face, hearing his voice, watching him move with his usual lazy, athletic grace would be so hard. Talking to him as though nothing had happened between them after months of silence had been difficult, to say the least.

And, truth be told, it made him a bit nervous to properly act as Kagami's shadow with Aomine looking on.

He and Kagami had clicked so fast that it still left Kuroko reeling when he thought about it. Kagami had trusted him, immediately and easily and they only got better, more in tune, as the days went by and mutual respect and love for basketball evolved into an easy, uncomplicated friendship. Aomine would understand, when he saw them play together properly, that Kagami wasn't just acting as a light. If that was the case than it would be fine, he'd worked in tandem with the other Miracles before, but Kagami was different. He _was _Kuroko's light now, his partner in a way that neither Kise, nor Midorima, nor Murisakibara could ever achieve. In a way that, previously, only Aomine had been able to achieve, and Kuroko wasn't so naïve as to think that Aomine wouldn't feel betrayed by that. And as for this new partnership, as much as Kuroko was grateful for it, it was also terrifying, because Kagami could very easily end up hurting him just as badly as Aomine.

Kuroko shook his head a bit in self-denial, "Kagami is different," he asserted quietly to the empty room, "Maybe he understands what's between us less clearly than Aomine did but he does understand. And unlike Aomine he knows that no matter how far he goes I'll be beside him, supporting him, even if he doesn't really need it, I'll still be there, because, it's like he said, the shadow will always stand by the light."

He was thinking about the whole thing too much, Kuroko decided, getting up from the couch when he heard the doorbell ring, and paying the delivery guy the usual amount for his food.

He had managed to play with Aomine after their break when they were both still at Teiko. He could do it again, and maybe, with time and Aida and Hyuuga's hard work and determination, Aomine would become a true member of the Seirin team. And then maybe, just maybe, he'd remember how to receive his passes again.

* * *

**AN:** Firstly, a shout-out to everybody who took the time to read, review, follow and fave! You guys rock! Secondly, shameless self-plug, I'm now on tumblr at _greeniethewritermouse . tumblr . com_ so go check me out! I post tons of KnB including blurb-fics, and status updates for this bad-boy, and nine times out of ten if you drop a prompt in my ask I'll respond with a ficlet.

Third, so I decided to switch to Kuroko's point of view so that we can get a look under those still waters, it came out with a lot of thoughts and what-not but I think it sort of set's the scene so that people can get a read on Kuroko's mood during scenes where there's dialogue but he's being his usual stoic, unreadable self.

Next chappie I plan to go back to Aomine, and then I'll probably pop into Kagami's brain after that.

Lastly, hope you all enjoyed! Please feel free to leave a review on your way out for suggestions about plot or for the improvement of my writing, or just to tell me what you thought.

Greenie out.


End file.
